Articles | Volume 14, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7199-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7199-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
17 Nov 2021
Research article |
| 17 Nov 2021
| 17 Nov 2021
Four-dimensional mesospheric and lower thermospheric wind fields using Gaussian process regression on multistatic specular meteor radar observations
Haystack Observatory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Westford, MA 01886, USA
Jorge L. Chau
Leibniz Institute of Atmospheric Physics, University of Rostock, 18225 Kühlungsborn, Germany
Philip J. Erickson
Haystack Observatory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Westford, MA 01886, USA
Juha P. Vierinen
Department of Physics and Technology, UiT Arctic University of Norway, 9010 Tromsø, Norway
J. Miguel Urco
Leibniz Institute of Atmospheric Physics, University of Rostock, 18225 Kühlungsborn, Germany
Matthias Clahsen
Leibniz Institute of Atmospheric Physics, University of Rostock, 18225 Kühlungsborn, Germany
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Investigation of winds is important to understand atmospheric dynamics. In the summer mesosphere and lower thermosphere, there are three main wind flows: the mesospheric westward, the mesopause southward (equatorward), and the lower-thermospheric eastward wind. Combining almost 2 decades of measurements from different radars, we study the trend, their interannual oscillations, and the effects of the geomagnetic activity over these wind maxima.
Kristina Collins, Steve Cerwin, Philip Erickson, Dev Joshi, Nathaniel Frissell, and Joe Huba
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Radio measurements of time standard stations can be used to measure changes in the ionosphere's height, but not the height itself. In this paper, we show that we can estimate ionospheric height using data from amateur radio stations along with other systems and simulations, that multiple signal paths can be found in this data, and that precisely controlling the receiver frequency is important for this approach to work. This work will help us analyze radio data collected by citizen scientists.
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Ann. Geophys., 40, 23–35, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-40-23-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-40-23-2022, 2022
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To study long-term trends in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (70–100 km), we established two summer length definitions and analyzed the variability over the years (2004–2020). After the analysis, we found significant trends in the summer beginning of one definition. Furthermore, we were able to extend one of the time series up to 31 years and obtained evidence of non-uniform trends and periodicities similar to those known for the quasi-biennial oscillation and El Niño–Southern Oscillation.
Fabio Vargas, Jorge L. Chau, Harikrishnan Charuvil Asokan, and Michael Gerding
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 13631–13654, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13631-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13631-2021, 2021
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We study large- and small-scale gravity wave cases observed in both airglow imagery and meteor radar data obtained during the SIMONe campaign carried out in early November 2018. We calculate the intrinsic features of several waves and estimate their impact in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere region via transferring energy and momentum to the atmosphere. We also associate cases of large-scale waves with secondary wave generation in the stratosphere.
Johann Stamm, Juha Vierinen, Juan M. Urco, Björn Gustavsson, and Jorge L. Chau
Ann. Geophys., 39, 119–134, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-39-119-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-39-119-2021, 2021
Harikrishnan Charuvil Asokan, Jorge L. Chau, Raffaele Marino, Juha Vierinen, Fabio Vargas, Juan Miguel Urco, Matthias Clahsen, and Christoph Jacobi
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2020-974, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2020-974, 2020
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This paper explores the dynamics of gravity waves and turbulence present in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) region. We utilized two different techniques on meteor radar observations and simulations to obtain power spectra at different horizontal scales. The techniques are applied to a special campaign conducted in northern Germany in November 2018. The study revealed the dominance of large-scale structures with horizontal scales larger than 500 km during the campaign period.
Alex T. Chartier, Juha Vierinen, and Geonhwa Jee
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 3023–3031, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3023-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3023-2020, 2020
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A novel oblique ionospheric radio sounder has been developed and demonstrated in Antarctica. The transmitter was located at McMurdo and the receiver at the South Pole (1356 km great-circle path). The system cycled through 12 frequencies each minute and recorded signal time of flight, intensity, and Doppler. This allowed for the estimation of peak ionospheric electron density, which validated well against independent data from the nearby Jang Bogo ionosonde and GPS TEC.
Maosheng He and Jorge Luis Chau
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 5993–6006, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5993-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5993-2019, 2019
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We propose an approach to resolve waves with multiple spatial scales at a given frequency using ground-based detectors from few longitudinal sectors. The approach is used to investigate near-12 h waves. Results suggest that broadly reported enhancements of two solar nonmigrating tides during sudden stratospheric warming events are just low-frequency-resolved signatures of two neighboring waves. The tides do not enhance.
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Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 5251–5258, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5251-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5251-2019, 2019
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Fazlul I. Laskar, Gunter Stober, Jens Fiedler, Meers M. Oppenheim, Jorge L. Chau, Duggirala Pallamraju, Nicholas M. Pedatella, Masaki Tsutsumi, and Toralf Renkwitz
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New systems to study the mesosphere are introduced. They result from the reengineering of previous systems, by making use of MIMO, spread-spectrum and compressed-sensing techniques that are widely used in telecommunications. The interferometer configuration is now implemented in transmission, making the location of meteor echoes possible with just one antenna on reception. Our novel concept makes the study of a mesosphere volume from different viewing points on the ground feasible and easy.
Nikoloz Gudadze, Gunter Stober, and Jorge L. Chau
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 4485–4497, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4485-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4485-2019, 2019
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We show a possibility of measuring mean vertical winds during the summer months using polar mesosphere summer echo (PMSE) observations. Middle Atmosphere Alomar Radar System observations of PMSE five-beam radial velocities are analysed to obtain the results. We found that sampling issues are the reason for bias in vertical wind measurements at the edges of PMSE altitudes. However, the PMSE is a good tracer for the mean vertical wind estimation at the central altitudes with its peak occurrence.
Juan Miguel Urco, Jorge Luis Chau, Tobias Weber, and Ralph Latteck
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 955–969, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-955-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-955-2019, 2019
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For decades, radar observations have been used to study complicated atmospheric dynamics. Previous observations of the mesosphere, between 80 and 90 km altitude, over polar regions have been limited to a spatial resolution of a few kilometers. In this work, we present a technique which allows 3-D radar observations of the mesospheric dynamics, with an unprecedented spatial resolution of ~ 900 m. We combine the concept of MIMO and high-resolution algorithms to improve the spatial resolution.
Gunter Stober, Jorge L. Chau, Juha Vierinen, Christoph Jacobi, and Sven Wilhelm
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4891–4907, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4891-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4891-2018, 2018
J. Federico Conte, Jorge L. Chau, Fazlul I. Laskar, Gunter Stober, Hauke Schmidt, and Peter Brown
Ann. Geophys., 36, 999–1008, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-36-999-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-36-999-2018, 2018
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Based on comparisons of meteor radar measurements with HAMMONIA model simulations, we show that the differences exhibited by the semidiurnal solar tide (S2) observed at middle and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere between equinox times are mainly due to distinct behaviors of the migrating semidiurnal (SW2) and the non-migrating westward-propagating wave number 1 semidiurnal (SW1) tidal components.
Jorge L. Chau, Derek McKay, Juha P. Vierinen, Cesar La Hoz, Thomas Ulich, Markku Lehtinen, and Ralph Latteck
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 9547–9560, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-9547-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-9547-2018, 2018
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Combining a phased-array power radar and a phased-array radio telescope, we have been able to identify and characterized horizontal structures and movement of noctilucent clouds, but at 3 m scales instead of optical scales. As a byproduct of our observations, we have studied their angular dependence. We show a new alternative to study these clouds on routine basis and therefore study the atmospheric dynamics that modulate them.
Dimitry Pokhotelov, Erich Becker, Gunter Stober, and Jorge L. Chau
Ann. Geophys., 36, 825–830, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-36-825-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-36-825-2018, 2018
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Atmospheric tides are produced by solar heating of the lower atmosphere. The tides propagate to the upper atmosphere and ionosphere playing an important role in the vertical coupling. Ground radar measurements of the seasonal variability of tides are compared with global numerical simulations. The agreement with radar data and limitations of the numerical model are discussed. The work represents a first step in modelling the impact of tidal dynamics on the upper atmosphere and ionosphere.
Gunter Stober, Svenja Sommer, Carsten Schult, Ralph Latteck, and Jorge L. Chau
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 6721–6732, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6721-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6721-2018, 2018
Sven Wilhelm, Gunter Stober, and Jorge L. Chau
Ann. Geophys., 35, 893–906, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-35-893-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-35-893-2017, 2017
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A comparison between winds and tides in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere based on measurements from a meteor radar (MR) and a medium-frequency radar in northern Norway was done to estimate potential biases between the two systems. Our results indicate reasonable agreement for the zonal and meridional wind components between 78 and 92 km. Based on these findings, we have taken the MR data as a reference and thus construct a consistent and homogenous wind from approximately 60 to 110 km.
Gunter Stober, Vivien Matthias, Christoph Jacobi, Sven Wilhelm, Josef Höffner, and Jorge L. Chau
Ann. Geophys., 35, 711–720, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-35-711-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-35-711-2017, 2017
Svenja Sommer and Jorge L. Chau
Ann. Geophys., 34, 1231–1241, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-34-1231-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-34-1231-2016, 2016
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Radar echoes from mesospheric altitudes (80–90 km) are called polar mesospheric summer echoes (PMSEs). These echoes can be used to derive wind velocities and turbulence strength estimations in a region where measurements are hard to perform. The small-scale structure of PMSEs has not been analysed before but, as we will show, has a major influence on wind and turbulence measurements. We also present a method to improve these measurements by using software beam-steering methods.
Juha Vierinen, Jorge L. Chau, Nico Pfeffer, Matthias Clahsen, and Gunter Stober
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 829–839, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-829-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-829-2016, 2016
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This paper describes the use of pseudorandom coded continuous wave radar transmissions for meteor radar. This avoids range-aliased echoes, maximizes pulse compression gain, is less susceptible to RFI, allows time resolution to be changed flexibly, and enables multiple transmitters to operate on the same frequency without interfering each other. These features make the radar well suited for multi-static meteor radar networks. We show results from a measurement campaign to demonstrate the method.
S. Sommer, G. Stober, J. L. Chau, and R. Latteck
Adv. Radio Sci., 12, 197–203, https://doi.org/10.5194/ars-12-197-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/ars-12-197-2014, 2014
C. Schult, G. Stober, J. L. Chau, and R. Latteck
Ann. Geophys., 31, 1843–1851, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-31-1843-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-31-1843-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Others (Wind, Precipitation, Temperature, etc.) | Technique: Remote Sensing | Topic: Data Processing and Information Retrieval
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This study evaluates the use of background surface reflectance (BSR) derived from a semi-empirical bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) model based on GEMS satellite images. Analysis shows that BSR provides improved accuracy and stability compared to Lambertian-equivalent reflectivity (LER). These results indicate that BSR can significantly enhance climate analysis and air quality monitoring, making it a promising tool for accurate environmental satellite applications.
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Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5397–5411, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5397-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5397-2024, 2024
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A method for determining drop size distributions (DSDs) for rain using radar measurements from two frequencies at two polarizations is presented. Following some preprocessing and quality control, radar measurements are incorporated into a model that uses swarm intelligence to seek the most suitable DSD to produce the input measurements.
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Atmospheric tides are global-scale oscillations with periods of a fraction of a day. Their observation in the middle atmosphere is challenging and rare, as it requires continuous measurements with a high temporal resolution. In this paper, temperature time series of a ground-based microwave radiometer were analyzed with a spectral filter to derive thermal tide amplitudes and phases in an altitude range of 25–50 km at the geographical locations of Payerne and Bern (Switzerland).
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We study how the spectral characteristics of a solid-state laser in an atmospheric temperature profiling lidar using the Raman technique impact the temperature retrieval accuracy. We find that the spectral widening, with respect to a seeded laser, has virtually no impact, while crystal-rod temperature variations in the laser must be kept within a range of 1 K for the uncertainty in the atmospheric temperature below 1 K. The study is carried out through spectroscopy simulations.
Robert Reichert, Natalie Kaifler, and Bernd Kaifler
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4659–4673, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4659-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4659-2024, 2024
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Imagine you want to determine how quickly the pitch of a passing ambulance’s siren changes. If the vehicle is traveling slowly, the pitch changes only slightly, but if it is traveling fast, the pitch also changes rapidly. In a similar way, the wind in the middle atmosphere modulates the wavelength of atmospheric gravity waves. We have investigated the question of how strong the maximum wind may be so that the change in wavelength can still be determined with the help of wavelet transformation.
Qiang Guo, Yuning Liu, Xin Wang, and Wen Hui
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4613–4627, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4613-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4613-2024, 2024
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Non-linearity (NL) correction is a critical procedure to guarantee that the calibration accuracy of a spaceborne sensor approaches a reasonable level. Different from the classical method, a new NL correction method for a spaceborne Fourier transform spectrometer is proposed. To overcome the inaccurate linear coefficient from two-point calibration influencing NL correction, an iteration algorithm is established that is suitable for NL correction of both infrared and microwave sensors.
Yuanxin Pan, Grzegorz Kłopotek, Laura Crocetti, Rudi Weinacker, Tobias Sturn, Linda See, Galina Dick, Gregor Möller, Markus Rothacher, Ian McCallum, Vicente Navarro, and Benedikt Soja
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4303–4316, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4303-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4303-2024, 2024
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Crowdsourced smartphone GNSS data were processed with a dedicated data processing pipeline and could produce millimeter-level accurate estimates of zenith total delay (ZTD) – a critical atmospheric variable. This breakthrough not only demonstrates the feasibility of using ubiquitous devices for high-precision atmospheric monitoring but also underscores the potential for a global, cost-effective tropospheric monitoring network.
Almudena Velázquez Blázquez, Edward Baudrez, Nicolas Clerbaux, and Carlos Domenech
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4245–4256, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4245-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4245-2024, 2024
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The Broadband Radiometer measures shortwave and total-wave radiances filtered by the spectral response of the instrument. To obtain unfiltered solar and thermal radiances, the effect of the spectral response needs to be corrected for, done within the BM-RAD processor. Errors in the unfiltering are propagated into fluxes; thus, accurate unfiltering is required for their proper estimation (within BMA-FLX). Unfiltering errors are estimated to be <0.5 % for the shortwave and <0.1 % for the longwave.
Qihou Zhou, Yanlin Li, and Yun Gong
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4197–4209, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4197-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4197-2024, 2024
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We discuss several robust estimators to compute the variance of a normally distributed random variable to deal with interference. Compared to rank-based estimators, the methods based on the geometric mean are more accurate and are computationally more efficient. We apply three robust estimators to incoherent scatter power and velocity processing, along with the traditional sample mean estimator. The best estimator is a hybrid estimator that combines the sample mean and a robust estimator.
Zhao Shi, Yuxiang Wen, and Jianxin He
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4121–4135, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4121-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4121-2024, 2024
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The squall line is a type of convective system. Squall lines are often associated with damaging weather, so identifying and tracking squall lines plays an important role in early meteorological disaster warnings. A clustering-based method is proposed in this article. It can identify the squall lines within the radar scanning range with an accuracy rate of 95.93 %. It can also provide the three-dimensional structure and movement tracking results for each squall line.
Elizabeth N. Smith and Jacob T. Carlin
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4087–4107, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4087-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4087-2024, 2024
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Boundary-layer height observations remain sparse in time and space. In this study we create a new fuzzy logic method for synergistically combining boundary-layer height estimates from a suite of instruments. These estimates generally compare well to those from radiosondes; plus, the approach offers near-continuous estimates through the entire diurnal cycle. Suspected reasons for discrepancies are discussed. The code for the newly presented fuzzy logic method is provided for the community to use.
Lev D. Labzovskii, Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff, David P. Donovan, Jos de Kloe, L. Gijsbert Tilstra, Ad Stoffelen, Damien Josset, and Piet Stammes
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1926, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1926, 2024
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The Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument (ALADIN) on the Aeolus satellite was the first of its kind to measure high-resolution vertical profiles of aerosols and cloud properties from space. We present an algorithm, producing Aeolus lidar surface returns (LSR) containing useful information for measuring UV reflectivity. Aeolus LSR matched well with existing UV reflectivity data from other satellites like GOME-2 and TROPOMI and demonstrated excellent sensitivity to modelled snow cover.
Laura Bianco, Bianca Adler, Ludovic Bariteau, Irina V. Djalalova, Timothy Myers, Sergio Pezoa, David D. Turner, and James M. Wilczak
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3933–3948, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3933-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3933-2024, 2024
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The Tropospheric Remotely Observed Profiling via Optimal Estimation physical retrieval is used to retrieve temperature and humidity profiles from various combinations of passive and active remote sensing instruments, surface platforms, and numerical weather prediction models. The retrieved profiles are assessed against collocated radiosonde in non-cloudy conditions to assess the sensitivity of the retrievals to different input combinations. Case studies with cloudy conditions are also inspected.
Björn Linder, Peter Preusse, Qiuyu Chen, Ole Martin Christensen, Lukas Krasauskas, Linda Megner, Manfred Ern, and Jörg Gumbel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3829–3841, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3829-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3829-2024, 2024
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The Swedish research satellite MATS (Mesospheric Airglow/Aerosol Tomography and Spectroscopy) is designed to study atmospheric waves in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. These waves perturb the temperature field, and thus, by observing three-dimensional temperature fluctuations, their properties can be quantified. This pre-study uses synthetic MATS data generated from a general circulation model to investigate how well wave properties can be retrieved.
Gia Huan Pham, Shu-Chih Yang, Chih-Chien Chang, Shu-Ya Chen, and Cheng Yung Huang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3605–3623, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3605-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3605-2024, 2024
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This research examines the characteristics of low-level GNSS radio occultation (RO) refractivity bias over ocean and land and its dependency on the RO retrieval uncertainty, atmospheric temperature, and moisture. We propose methods for estimating the region-dependent refractivity bias. Our methods can be applied to calibrate the refractivity bias under different atmospheric conditions and thus improve the applications of the GNSS RO data in the deep troposphere.
Sanja Dmitrovic, Johnathan W. Hair, Brian L. Collister, Ewan Crosbie, Marta A. Fenn, Richard A. Ferrare, David B. Harper, Chris A. Hostetler, Yongxiang Hu, John A. Reagan, Claire E. Robinson, Shane T. Seaman, Taylor J. Shingler, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Holger Vömel, Xubin Zeng, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3515–3532, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3515-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3515-2024, 2024
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This study introduces and evaluates a new ocean surface wind speed product from the NASA Langley Research Center (LARC) airborne High-Spectral-Resolution Lidar – Generation 2 (HSRL-2) during the NASA ACTIVATE mission. We show that HSRL-2 surface wind speed data are accurate when compared to ground-truth dropsonde measurements. Therefore, the HSRL-2 instrument is able obtain accurate, high-resolution surface wind speed data in airborne field campaigns.
Almudena Velázquez Blázquez, Carlos Domenech, Edward Baudrez, Nicolas Clerbaux, Carla Salas Molar, and Nils Madenach
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1539, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1539, 2024
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This paper focuses on the BMA-FLX processor, in which thermal and solar top-of-atmosphere radiative fluxes are obtained from longwave and shortwave radiances measured along-track by the EarthCARE Broadband Radiometer (BBR). The BBR measurements, at three fixed viewing angles (fore, nadir, aft) are co-registered either at the surface or at a reference level. A combined flux from the three BRR views is obtained. The algorithm has been successfully validated against test scenes.
Laura M. Tomkins, Sandra E. Yuter, and Matthew A. Miller
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3377–3399, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3377-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3377-2024, 2024
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We have created a new method to better identify enhanced features in radar data from winter storms. Unlike the clear-cut features seen in warm-season storms, features in winter storms are often fuzzier with softer edges. Our technique is unique because it uses two adaptive thresholds that change based on the background radar values. It can identify both strong and subtle features in the radar data and takes into account uncertainties in the detection process.
Eileen Päschke and Carola Detring
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3187–3217, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3187-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3187-2024, 2024
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Little noise in radial velocity Doppler lidar measurements can contribute to large errors in retrieved turbulence variables. In order to distinguish between plausible and erroneous measurements we developed new filter techniques that work independently of the choice of a specific threshold for the signal-to-noise ratio. The performance of these techniques is discussed both by means of assessing the filter results and by comparing retrieved turbulence variables versus independent measurements.
Luuk D. van der Valk, Miriam Coenders-Gerrits, Rolf W. Hut, Aart Overeem, Bas Walraven, and Remko Uijlenhoet
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2811–2832, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2811-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2811-2024, 2024
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Microwave links, often part of mobile phone networks, can be used to measure rainfall along the link path by determining the signal loss caused by rainfall. We use high-frequency data of multiple microwave links to recreate commonly used sampling strategies. For time intervals up to 1 min, the influence of sampling strategies on estimated rainfall intensities is relatively little, while for intervals longer than 5–15 min, the sampling strategy can have significant influences on the estimates.
Martin Lainer, Killian P. Brennan, Alessandro Hering, Jérôme Kopp, Samuel Monhart, Daniel Wolfensberger, and Urs Germann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2539–2557, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2539-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2539-2024, 2024
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This study uses deep learning (the Mask R-CNN model) on drone-based photogrammetric data of hail on the ground to estimate hail size distributions (HSDs). Traditional hail sensors' limited areas complicate the full HSD retrieval. The HSD of a supercell event on 20 June 2021 is retrieved and contains > 18 000 hailstones. The HSD is compared to automatic hail sensor measurements and those of weather-radar-based MESHS. Investigations into ground hail melting are performed by five drone flights.
Bianca Adler, David D. Turner, Laura Bianco, Irina V. Djalalova, Timothy Myers, and James M. Wilczak
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-714, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-714, 2024
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Profiles of temperature and humidity in the atmospheric boundary layer can be retrieved from passive ground-based remote sensors such as microwave radiometers and infrared spectrometers. In this work, we present improvements to the optimal estimation physical retrieval framework TROPoe, which increase the availability of retrieved profiles and temporal consistency and enhance the value of TROPoe for the study of atmospheric processes.
Andreas Foth, Moritz Lochmann, Pablo Saavedra Garfias, and Heike Kalesse-Los
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-919, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-919, 2024
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Microwave radiometers are usually not able to provide atmospheric quantities such as temperature profiles during rain. Here, we present a method based on a selection of specific frequencies and elevation angles from the microwave radiometer observation. A comparison with a numerical weather prediction model shows that the presented method allows to resolve temperature profiles during rain with rain rates up to 2 mm h−1 which was not possible before with state-of-the-art retrievals.
Andrea Camplani, Daniele Casella, Paolo Sanò, and Giulia Panegrossi
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2195–2217, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2195-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2195-2024, 2024
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The paper describes a new machine-learning-based snowfall retrieval algorithm for Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder observations developed to retrieve high-latitude snowfall events. The main novelty of the approach is the radiometric characterization of the background surface at the time of the overpass, which is ancillary to the retrieval process. The algorithm shows a unique capability to retrieve snowfall in the environmental conditions typical of high latitudes.
Lusheng Liang, Wenying Su, Sergio Sejas, Zachary Eitzen, and Norman G. Loeb
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2147–2163, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2147-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2147-2024, 2024
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This paper describes an updated process to obtain unfiltered radiation from CERES satellite instruments by incorporating the most recent developments in radiative transfer modeling and ancillary input datasets (e.g., realistic representation of land surface radiation and climatology of surface temperatures and aerosols) during the past 20 years. The resulting global mean of instantaneous SW and LW fluxes is changed by less than 0.5 W m−2 with regional differences as large as 2.0 W m−2.
Maximilian Graf, Andreas Wagner, Julius Polz, Llorenç Lliso, José Alberto Lahuerta, Harald Kunstmann, and Christian Chwala
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2165–2182, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2165-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2165-2024, 2024
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Commercial microwave links (CMLs) can be used for rainfall retrieval. The detection of rainy periods in their attenuation time series is a crucial processing step. We investigate the usage of rainfall data from MSG SEVIRI for this task, compare this approach with existing methods, and introduce a novel combined approach. The results show certain advantages for SEVIRI-based methods, particularly for CMLs where existing methods perform poorly. Our novel combination yields the best performance.
Lieuwe G. Tilstra, Martin de Graaf, Victor J. H. Trees, Pavel Litvinov, Oleg Dubovik, and Piet Stammes
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2235–2256, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2235-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2235-2024, 2024
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This paper introduces a new surface albedo climatology of directionally dependent Lambertian-equivalent reflectivity (DLER) observed by TROPOMI on the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite. The database contains monthly fields of DLER for 21 wavelength bands at a relatively high spatial resolution of 0.125 by 0.125 degrees. The anisotropy of the surface reflection is handled by parameterisation of the viewing angle dependence.
Bing Cao and Alan Z. Liu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2123–2146, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2123-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2123-2024, 2024
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A narrow-band sodium lidar measures atmospheric waves but is limited to vertical variations. We propose to utilize phase shifts among observations from different laser beams to derive horizontal wave information. Two gravity wave packets were identified by this method. Both waves were found to interact with thin evanescent layers, partially reflected, but transmitted energy to higher altitudes. The method can detect more medium-frequency gravity waves for similar lidar systems worldwide.
Thomas Hocking, Thorsten Mauritsen, and Linda Megner
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-356, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-356, 2024
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The imbalance between the energy the Earth absorbs from the Sun and the energy the Earth emits back to space gives rise to climate change, but measuring the small imbalance is challenging. We simulate satellites in various orbits to investigate how well they sample the imbalance, and find that the best option is to combine at least two satellites that see complementary parts of the Earth and cover the daily and annual cycles. This information is useful when planning future satellite missions.
Xiaozhen Xiong, Xu Liu, Robert Spurr, Ming Zhao, Qiguang Yang, Wan Wu, and Liqiao Lei
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1965–1978, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1965-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1965-2024, 2024
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The term “hotspot” refers to the sharp increase in reflectance occurring when incident (solar) and reflected (viewing) directions coincide in the backscatter direction. The accurate simulation of hotspot directional signatures is important for many remote sensing applications, but current models typically require large values of computations to represent the hotspot accurately. This paper provides a numerically improved hotspot BRDF model that converges much faster and is used in VLIDORT.
Daniel Zawada, Kimberlee Dubé, Taran Warnock, Adam Bourassa, Susann Tegtmeier, and Douglas Degenstein
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1995–2010, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1995-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1995-2024, 2024
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There remain large uncertainties in long-term changes of stratospheric–atmospheric temperatures. We have produced a time series of more than 20 years of satellite-based temperature measurements from the OSIRIS instrument in the upper–middle stratosphere. The dataset is publicly available and intended to be used for a better understanding of changes in stratospheric temperatures.
Natalie E. Theeuwes, Janet F. Barlow, Antti Mannisenaho, Denise Hertwig, Ewan O'Connor, and Alan Robins
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-937, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-937, 2024
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A doppler lidar was placed in highly built-up area in London to measure wakes from tall buildings during a period of one year. We were able to detect wakes and assess their dependence on wind speed, wind direction, and atmospheric stability.
Alban Philibert, Marie Lothon, Julien Amestoy, Pierre-Yves Meslin, Solène Derrien, Yannick Bezombes, Bernard Campistron, Fabienne Lohou, Antoine Vial, Guylaine Canut-Rocafort, Joachim Reuder, and Jennifer K. Brooke
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1679–1701, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1679-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1679-2024, 2024
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We present a new algorithm, CALOTRITON, for the retrieval of the convective boundary layer depth with ultra-high-frequency radar measurements. CALOTRITON is partly based on the principle that the top of the convective boundary layer is associated with an inversion and a decrease in turbulence. It is evaluated using ceilometer and radiosonde data. It is able to qualify the complexity of the vertical structure of the low troposphere and detect internal or residual layers.
Kamil Mroz, Alessandro Battaglia, and Ann M. Fridlind
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1577–1597, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1577-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1577-2024, 2024
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In this study, we examine the extent to which radar measurements from space can inform us about the properties of clouds and precipitation. Surprisingly, our analysis showed that the amount of ice turning into rain was lower than expected in the current product. To improve on this, we came up with a new way to extract information about the size and concentration of particles from radar data. As long as we use this method in the right conditions, we can even estimate how dense the ice is.
Wolf Knöller, Gholamhossein Bagheri, Philipp von Olshausen, and Michael Wilczek
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-184, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-184, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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Three-dimensional (3D) wind velocity measurements are of major importance for the characterization of atmospheric turbulence. This paper presents a detailed study of the measurement uncertainty of a three-beam wind-LiDAR designed for mounting on airborne platforms. Considering the geometrical constraints, the analysis provides quantitative estimates for the measurement uncertainty of all components of the 3D wind vector. As a result, we propose an optimized post-processing for error reduction.
Volker Wulfmeyer, Christoph Senff, Florian Späth, Andreas Behrendt, Diego Lange, Robert M. Banta, W. Alan Brewer, Andreas Wieser, and David D. Turner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1175–1196, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1175-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1175-2024, 2024
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A simultaneous deployment of Doppler, temperature, and water-vapor lidar systems is used to provide profiles of molecular destruction rates and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation in the convective boundary layer (CBL). The results can be used for the parameterization of turbulent variables, TKE budget analyses, and the verification of weather forecast and climate models.
Daisuke Hotta, Katrin Lonitz, and Sean Healy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1075–1089, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1075-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1075-2024, 2024
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Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) polarimetric radio occultation (PRO) is a new type of GNSS observations that can detect heavy precipitation along the ray path between the emitter and receiver satellites. As a first step towards using these observations in numerical weather prediction (NWP), we developed a computer code that simulates GNSS-PRO observations from forecast fields produced by an NWP model. The quality of the developed simulator is evaluated with a number of case studies.
Mohamed Mossad, Irina Strelnikova, Robin Wing, and Gerd Baumgarten
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 783–799, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-783-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-783-2024, 2024
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This numerical study addresses observational gaps' impact on atmospheric gravity wave spectra. Three methods, fast Fourier transform (FFT), generalized Lomb–Scargle periodogram (GLS), and Haar structure function (HSF), were tested on synthetic data. HSF is best for spectra with negative slopes. GLS excels for flat and positive slopes and identifying dominant frequencies. Accurately estimating these aspects is crucial for understanding gravity wave dynamics and energy transfer in the atmosphere.
Kuo-Nung Wang, Chi O. Ao, Mary G. Morris, George A. Hajj, Marcin J. Kurowski, Francis J. Turk, and Angelyn W. Moore
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 583–599, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-583-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-583-2024, 2024
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In this article, we described a joint retrieval approach combining two techniques, RO and MWR, to obtain high vertical resolution and solve for temperature and moisture independently. The results show that the complicated structure in the lower troposphere can be better resolved with much smaller biases, and the RO+MWR combination is the most stable scenario in our sensitivity analysis. This approach is also applied to real data (COSMIC-2/Suomi-NPP) to show the promise of joint RO+MWR retrieval.
Filippo Emilio Scarsi, Alessandro Battaglia, Frederic Tridon, Paolo Martire, Ranvir Dhillon, and Anthony Illingworth
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 499–514, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-499-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-499-2024, 2024
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The WIVERN mission, one of the two candidates to be the ESA's Earth Explorer 11 mission, aims at providing measurements of horizontal winds in cloud and precipitation systems through a conically scanning W-band Doppler radar. This work discusses four methods that can be used to characterize and correct the Doppler velocity error induced by the antenna mispointing. The proposed methodologies can be extended to other Doppler concepts featuring conically scanning or slant viewing Doppler systems.
Luis Ackermann, Joshua Soderholm, Alain Protat, Rhys Whitley, Lisa Ye, and Nina Ridder
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 407–422, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-407-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-407-2024, 2024
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The paper addresses the crucial topic of hail damage quantification using radar observations. We propose a new radar-derived hail product that utilizes a large dataset of insurance hail damage claims and radar observations. A deep neural network was employed, trained with local meteorological variables and the radar observations, to better quantify hail damage. Key meteorological variables were identified to have the most predictive capability in this regard.
Christos Gatidis, Marc Schleiss, and Christine Unal
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 235–245, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-235-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-235-2024, 2024
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A common method to retrieve important information about the microphysical structure of rain (DSD retrievals) requires a constrained relationship between the drop size distribution parameters. The most widely accepted empirical relationship is between μ and Λ. The relationship shows variability across the different types of rainfall (convective or stratiform). The new proposed power-law model to represent the μ–Λ relation provides a better physical interpretation of the relationship coefficients.
Liqin Jin, Jakob Mann, Nikolas Angelou, and Mikael Sjöholm
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 6007–6023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-6007-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-6007-2023, 2023
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By sampling the spectra from continuous-wave Doppler lidars very fast, the rain-induced Doppler signal can be suppressed and the bias in the wind velocity estimation can be reduced. The method normalizes 3 kHz spectra by their peak values before averaging them down to 50 Hz. Over 3 h, we observe a significant reduction in the bias of the lidar data relative to the reference sonic data when the largest lidar focus distance is used. The more it rains, the more the bias is reduced.
Florian Günzkofer, Gunter Stober, Dimitry Pokhotelov, Yasunobu Miyoshi, and Claudia Borries
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5897–5907, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5897-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5897-2023, 2023
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Electric currents in the ionosphere can impact both satellite and ground-based infrastructure. These currents depend strongly on the collisions of ions and neutral particles. Measuring ion–neutral collisions is often only possible via certain assumptions. The direct measurement of ion–neutral collision frequencies is possible with multifrequency incoherent scatter radar measurements. This paper presents one analysis method of such measurements and discusses its advantages and disadvantages.
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Short summary
We introduce a new way of estimating winds in the upper atmosphere (about 80 to 100 km in altitude) from the observed Doppler shift of meteor trails using a statistical method called Gaussian process regression. Wind estimates and, critically, the uncertainty of those estimates can be evaluated smoothly (i.e., not gridded) in space and time. The effective resolution is set by provided parameters, which are limited in practice by the number density of the observed meteors.
We introduce a new way of estimating winds in the upper atmosphere (about 80 to 100 km in...
